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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight
is a comic book series from Dark Horse Comics, published from March 2007 to January 2011. It is the canonical continuation of the seventh and final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. Premise Buffy and Xander now lead command-central, which is situated at a citadel in Scotland. At their disposal are a wide array of psychics, seers, witches, and Slayers, along with a vast amount of technology. There are 1,800 Slayers worldwide according to Buffy, almost 500 of whom are working with the Scoobies, separated into 10 squads. Squads include Andrew's in Southern Italy, Giles' in England, Vi's in New York City, Robin's in Cleveland, Ohio and another led by Rona in Chicago. For Buffy's protection and because her name is feared worldwide, two decoys are put in place: one partying in Rome with the Immortal, and one on a mission in demonic underground caverns. In the wake of Sunnydale's destruction, elements within the United States government view them as an army akin to terrorist cells and characterize Buffy as a "charismatic, uncompromising and completely destructive" leader. General Voll, a member of a mystically aware Initiative-like government project, describes fear of their resources, power and ideology. The government has teamed with Sunnydale survivor/powerful witch Amy Madison and Season 6 villain Warren Mears, both of whom seek revenge in a Big Bad role, which is new for Amy. Simultaneously, an evil British socialite Slayer Lady Genevieve Savidge plots to usurp Buffy's place in the Slayer hierarchy, and a shrewd cabal of Japanese vampires scheme to reverse the global activation of Potential Slayers. The appearances of these villains so far appear connected to "Twilight", the enigmatic Big Bad of the season, a masked person who plans to destroy all of the Slayers and bring the end of magic. A subplot involves the repercussions of Dawn's college relationship with Kenny, a thricewise whom she cheated on, losing her virginity to his roommate Nick. Consequently, Dawn has been "cursed" with mystical transformations: first into a giant and later a centaur; her friends are unable to reverse them. Among the core group, Buffy is for a time romantically drawn to the Slayer Satsu, and Xander to Slayer Renee; Willow's relationship with the core group is more estranged, while she protectively withholds Kennedy from her friends. Giles and Buffy, at odds, have momentarily fallen from speaking terms with one another. Giles now works with Faith, in trying to prevent more Slayers from going rogue. Along with these new obstacles, Harmony exposes vampires to the world at large, causing pop cultural love for vampires and animosity towards Slayers. Continuity *The events take place after "Chosen", Antique, After the Fall, Part Seventeen, and Stranger Things. *The Season Nine story Magical Mystery Tour, Featuring the Beetles takes place before the conclusion of this season. *The story is concomitant to Tales stories The Thrill as well as Carpe Noctem, Part One and Part Two. *The series continues in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine and Angel & Faith. Appearances *Buffy Summers (38/40) *Xander Harris (36/40) *Willow Rosenberg (34/40) *Dawn Summers (31/40) *Rupert Giles (23/40) *Andrew Wells (21/40) *Angel (21/40) *Faith Lehane (19/40) *Leah (18/40) *Amy Madison (15/40) *Satsu (15/40) *Kennedy (14/40) *Warren Mears (14/40) *Rowena (12/40) *The General (9/40) *Renee (8/40) *Spike (7/40) *Daniel Osbourne (6/40) *Riley Finn (5/40) *Simone Doffler (5/40) *Dracula (4/40) *Melaka Fray (4/40) *The Master (4/40) *Kumiko Ishihara (4/40) *Raidon (4/40) *Roden (4/40) *Genevieve Savidge (4/40) *Toru (4/40) *Erin Fray (3/40) *Gates (3/40) *Ethan Rayne (3/40) *Violet (3/40) *Gunther (2/40) *Harth Fray (2/40) *Trafalgar (2/40) *Clement (1/40) *Harmony Kendall (1/40) Publications The series included 40 issues and 7 extra stories, collected in five trade paperbacks, four hardcovers, and two omnibuses. Issues Extras Trade paperback Library edition Omnibus Behind the scenes *The series was originally supposed to consist of about 25 issues,"Interview with Buffy creator Joss Whedon 3/26/07". Dark Horse Comics, March 26, 2007. but eventually expanded to a 40-issue run. *The series earned a nomination for "Best Continuing Series""2008 Eisner Nominations Announced". CBR, April 14, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2019. and won the category "Best New Series" for the 2008 Will Eisner Awards."2000s". Comic-Con International: San Diego. Retrieved May 11, 2019.The issue The Long Way Home, Part One won two Diamond Gem Awards in 2007, as "Licensed Comic of the Year" and "Comic Book of the Year, under $3.00"."Diamond Gem Awards". Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc.. Retrieved May 11, 2019. The collection "Wolves at the Gate" received a GLAAD Media Award in 2009 as "Outstanding Comic Book", for honoring its representation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community."Tyra Banks, Suze Orman Honored at 20th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Presented by IBM". GLAAD, March 29, 2009. Archived from the original on May 8, 2009. *Fox Home Entertainment produced the Season Eight Motion Comic, adapting the first eighteen issues of the season. *About this season following comic book time style, editor Scott Allie has declared: "I don't think much about what year Season Eight takes place in, or how time is passing. I can't tell you the year of Buffy's death. Season Eight does take place about a year and a half after season seven; but I don't necessarily think of season seven having been in 2003. If you need to see it like that, and can believe in a world full of Slayers and vampires and demons, would you believe Casino Royale came out in 2004? In season six, the kids weren't reacting to 9/11 the way every actual person in America was. Believe me, editing comics, reading comics, if you think too much about what year a comic takes place in, it drives you nuts. Read the stories. Sometimes more time passes between issues than others. Sometimes more time passes within an issue than in others. Everything you need to know to enjoy the story is in there. Timelines kill the spontaneity of a comics story. We recently did a massive timeline for the Hellboy comics, and I couldn't regret it more, because it's hemmed in all sorts of things that never needed for story purposes to be hemmed in.""Ask Scott Allie - August '08". SlayAlive Forum, August 6, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2018. References fr:Buffy contre les vampires, Saison huit pt:Buffy - The Vampire Slayer - Season Eight nl:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Seizoen Acht Category:Buffy comics Category:Seasons Category:Season Eight